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REACHER Season 2 | Moustache Trailer Reaction

Once again Lee Child's literary character leaps from the page to the screen in the trailer for Reacher season 2. Check it out below. After introducing a new take on Jack Reacher - one much closer to Lee Child's vision - with a clever adaptation of the first novel Killing Floor , Alan Ritchson is back as the drifter/ex-military cop. It's a role he handles very well - both in performance and stature - and if the trailer is anything to go by Reacher's more unstoppable than ever! Watching him take care of a car jacker with extreme efficiency is not only incredibly enjoyable, it perfectly captures what fans love about this character. The second season is based on one of my favourite of the Reacher novels; Bad Luck and Trouble . Once again they've chosen a book in which Reacher has a personal stake in the situation, something that goes way beyond his everyday hatred of bad people - like the aforementioned car jacker. When members of his old team start showing up dead, Rea

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre | Average Guy Movie Review

When a dangerous weapon is stolen by gangsters, the British Government hire a team of private contractors - led by Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) and Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) - to acquire it. Their plan; get close to the broker responsible for organising the sale of the weapon (Hugh Grant), using a Hollywood actor (Josh Hartnett) with whom the broker has an obsession. I'm starting to think Guy Ritchie wasn't too happy about not getting to make a sequel to The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  (I know I wasn't). That's the feeling I get when watching Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre  (what a title!). It's like he decided that instead he would do his own take on James Bond and Mission: Impossible . Unfortunately, after a fun opening involving the recruitment of Elwes and Statham, it becomes inescapably clear that the movie suffers from a lack of Ritchie's signature flair - not to mention pretty much everything that made The Man from U.N.C.L.E. so cool. Making Operation For

Devotion | Average Guy Movie Review

The story of the US Navy's first African-American aviator, Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), and his wingman Tom Hudner (Glen Powell). From their training in the years after World War 2 for the much anticipated war with the Soviet Union. To combat operations during the Korean War. At first glance, and with the proximity of their releases - as well as other obvious connections - it's almost impossible to not make comparisons between Devotion  and Top Gun: Maverick . However, in reality this is like comparing Sense and Sensibility with Shaun of the Dead . Granted,  Top Gun: Maverick  is a movie about (or at least revolving around) Naval Aviators. But it's really about the flying, looking cool while doing it, and of course... never leaving your wingman. That is one way in which these two movies do connect. Because Devotion  - a title that may seem like an odd choice, but isn't - is more about the men than the flying. Which is under-stating it slightly. More accurately, it

The 'Jack Ryan' Movie Boxset

For Christmas I was given the Jack Ryan  movie boxset, and with the third season of the show starring John Krasinski now available on Amazon Prime, it seemed like the perfect time to revisit the franchise. Despite having been constantly rebooted and recast, the series has consistently produced tense and exciting action/thrillers...  mostly. Four out of five ain't bad! The Hunt for Red October The first of the Jack Ryan  movies has all the intrigue of a spy thriller, and all of the tension of a submarine movie, making it the perfect movie to kick off the franchise. Set at a time when Cold War hostilities were on the rise, we are drawn into this high-stakes battle of wills between the Soviet Union, the United States, and a lone submarine captain. Excellent performances and some clever cinematography give the movie a real sense of claustrophobia, allowing director John McTiernan to slowly ratchet up the tension, as Ryan struggles to make contact with the Red October and avoid an all o

Samaritan | Average Guy Movie Review

Granite City used to be the home of two super-powered individuals; Samaritan and Nemesis. After an explosion at the city's power plant, they were feared dead. But 25 years later there are some who believe Samaritan survived, including 13-year-old Sam Cleary (Javon Walton). Sam thinks his neighbour, Joe Smith (Sylvester Stallone), is the city's lost superhero, so the boy makes it his mission to find out why his hero is living in hiding. Amazon's latest foray into a superhero world is not quite the explosive hit I'm sure they hoped it would be. Samaritan  looks a lot like the superhero movies of the late nineties and early noughties - including some very cheap looking super suits and bad CGI. It feels like it has been ripped directly from the pages of a graphic novel, rather than adapted for a movie. Some things don't translate well from page to screen, and this it seems, is one of them. The story is a rather bland, run-of-the-mill affair, making it rather difficult t

A Chris Prime/Amazon Pine Double Bill

  With the recent appearance of two brand new Chris Pine movies on Amazon Prime Video , I figured there was no better time for a double feature - not to mention a half-decent excuse to hit two movies with one review. The only question was which one to watch first; the action movie or the spy thriller? I went with the action movie. The Contractor  follows James Harper (Pine), a soldier who is unceremoniously discharged from the military after being wounded. Facing money troubles and still wanting to serve, Harper enlists with a private military contractor. His first assignment sends him to Europe to surveil a scientist with possible terrorist ties. But when things go wrong he finds himself caught in a game of cat and mouse as he attempts to get home to his family. Tarik Saleh may be going for a Bourne -esque action thriller with The Contractor , but it starts out as something very different. Our introduction to James Harper feels more like a commentary on the plight of wounded military

Wrath of Man | Average Guy Movie Review

A seemingly normal guy joins an armoured truck firm in Los Angeles. But it quickly becomes apparent that 'H' (Jason Statham) is not quite who he says he is. The question is; who is he really, and what is he really up to? A remake of the 2004 French movie Cash Truck  ( Le Convoyeur ), Wrath of Man  is a testosterone-fuelled, albeit dreary tale of a man out for revenge. One that certainly highlights the potential dangers of a career driving armoured trucks. The dreary stylings may be a strange choice for an action movie, but it is actually rather fitting, given that by its very nature, vengeance is a grim business. It doesn't take long for the bullets to start flying in some fairly tense action scenes, as every armed robber in Los Angeles seems to be interested in what these armoured trucks are carrying. Director Guy Ritchie brings a gritty blend of Hollywood action movie tropes as H - with some occasional help from his colleagues - takes on any wannabe robbers. Expect lots o

Boss Level | Average Guy Movie Review

Roy (Frank Grillo) is a man with a problem; everyday he wakes up to the sound of people trying to kill him. But that's not really it. No, the real problem is that they succeed, and Roy has to wake up and do it all over again. That's right, Roy is stuck in a time loop, and he has no idea why. What he does know is that it has something to do with his ex-wife Jemma (Naomi Watts) and her boss Colonel Clive Ventor (Mel Gibson). Now he just has to live long enough to figure out the rest. Joe Carnahan has taken the whole Groundhog Day /time loop idea and made it into a high-octane action movie. From start to finish Boss Level  is pure insanity, and it revels in it - especially in the inventive ways it manages to keep killing our hero. The whole thing plays out like a video game, especially when it comes to the splendiferously over the top action. In any other situation you'd question how a man could get away with causing so much carnage without the appearance of a single police of